Semen Production and Management of Rabbit Bucks

The aim of this review was to summarise recent knowledge of the physiology of semen production and management of rabbit bucks. As in other mammals, the spermatogenesis is affected by many environmental factors (temperature, light, age of animals, feeding strategies, health status) as well as by semen handling (dilution, temperature, and condition of storage). Optimal conditions of rearing rabbit bucks can improve the quality of semen permitting to produce additional doses with higher and more stable fertilizing ability. In addition to the use of rabbit as a component of the food chain, rabbit bucks or spermatozoa could be useful as in vivo or in vitro toxicological models for some chemical compounds. A peculiar aspect of rabbit semen is the large presence of granules produced by prostate gland which, after ejaculation, make contact with spermatozoa. These granules seem implicated in the synchronization between ovulation time and the acrosome reaction. Since in rabbit does the ovulation occurs after several hours from mating, it is highly hypothesisable that during this lag-phase seminal particles contribute to delayed premature capacitation and acrosome reaction and maximize the likelihood that an ovulated egg would meet spermatozoa in the best functional state.